On the Program Today - Feb 20th 2008

In this video clip (as of the moment I'm posting this link) from Drudge's Britebart site, Michelle Obama's word "really" in "I'm really proud of America" has been deleted from the audio, although you can see her lips say it. Check it out: http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=49244

Hour One - Guest: John Berlau www.cei.org Topic: Stimulus package not the path to economic recovery - If not the stimulus package, then what is the answer? What about rebuilding the infrastructure?

Hour Two - Guest: Fred Kaplan www.slate.com Topic: DAYDREAM BELIEVERS: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power

Hour Three - Guest: U.S. Congressman D-TX Rep. Silvestre Reyes http://wwwc.house.gov/reyes/default.asp Topic: FISA…why do the Republicans keep trying to terrorize Americans?

Guest: Larry Scott www.vawatchdog.org Topic: Vet's issues

Today I had a chance to talk with John Berlau from CEI about the economic stimulus package. While we are both in agreement that the stimulus package won't work, we disagree on why. John supports higher taxes, while I support fixing America by fixing the infrastructure. During our discussion, at one point I had to ask "Am I hearing John Berlau of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute calling for more government regulation?" What a shocker! I went on to point out that in the mortgage business, there's all this competition...and folks getting so called "ninja loans"...where everyone was competing to make a buck and it wasn't being regulated. Berlau countered that banking is a highly regulated industry...although he admitted he wasn't sure what regulation would have prevented the subprime mess. I suggested we have the folks who make the loans not be the ones who hold the money...or if we do let them hold the money, then we should regulate the heck out of them. Berlau said that's why we have Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae, however he agreed that they both got caught for phony accounting.

Thom's Blog Is On the Move

Hello All

Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.

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